But Bach sold his soul to the Devil. Even at his simplest he still sounded heavenly. And vice versa. That's a great craft.

So he doesn't count.

OK, Mozart.

@Robusto Also that thing, you have that with everything. Practicing the flute, for that matter. You know how it works, you just need to enter that positive-feedback loop instead. Find something that works, and that gives you the energy to work harder, and so you become better, and so it's more fun, and so you do even more, and so it's even better, etc.

@Robusto great example. Just a child of his time. No genius, a craftsman. No talent, just practice.

Have you read Gjerdingen by any chance?

I've kinda lost the overview who I've talked that book about to and to whom I haven't.

amazon.de/Music-Galant-Style-Robert-Gjerdingen/dp/0195313712

Get this book.

And really just read the first two pages of the preface, that's where the entire book is at really. The other 500 pages are just examples proving that point.

@RegDwigнt Worth 40 euros in Kindle edition? Really?

Don't know about the Kindle edition. Really can't say.

I got the hard cover for 60 bucks.

Worth every penny. Wish I'd paid more.

@RegDwigнt I gave up practicing the flute around the time your were born, sonny.

Exactly. So you've known for half a century now that what I just told you works the way I just said it does.

Get a thing going, then the thing will keep you going.

Anyway. Mozart. He just played with LEGO is what he did.

Is what everyone did back then.

The tyranny of the practice room is something that must be overthrown.

It's only a tyranny if you don't know what you're doing. When you're practicing for the sake of practice. Playing for two hours because you think that's the goal. Rather than practicing just the thing you need to practice, and be done in five minutes. Or maybe in five hours. But you'll have made progress. Just looking at the clock for 2 hours every day is no progress.

It feels like a chore because that's what it is.

@RegDwigнt Hey, I did know what I was doing and I knew what the goal was: technical competence that would let me play at a high level with other musicians.

That didn't mean it wasn't crushingly boring.

Well I don't know much about the flute.

Maybe that's how things are there.

Like, I do find accordeon practice to be way more boring than piano practice.

polka joke incoming in 3... 2... 1...

Sorry I came in late, I had to look one up.

Fitting in every particular.

I get it.

Point being, apparently it's not a joke, they really do fall off in the exact order.

So maybe that means your point about the banjo and accordion is very accurate as well.

I don't have a banjo, so I can't try.

I'd get one, but there's like exactly one piece I'd like to play on it and the rest is like, wtf is the thing even for.

@Robusto Hey!

@RegDwigнt What piece.

That's what it's for.

Lol and now that kid on the main site posts a comment back at me that's just a link to the "why you heff 2b mad" YouTube video.

Called it.

@MetaEd Spiral Mountain by Grant Kirkhope. From Banjo Kazooie for the N64.

@MetaEd Sorry, @Reg asked for an accordion joke.

Indid I deed.

Oh I love the outro. Big Lebowski vibes. Represent!

Forgot all about that.

John Fogerty FTW

That's not blank.

I can see an entire sentence if I look very closely.

You're not supposed to take it literally. It's like a zen koan.

You have failed to achieve satori, my son. Next!

But how am I supposed to know what to take literally and what not, sensei?

Well, grasshopper, if you ask a question like that I must slap you.

That page should read, "the following sentence is not to be taken literally" and then the other thing.

The powers that be like it the way it is. Sorry, request denied.

They could explain a few more details in detail and hey presto, just like that they've filled the entire page.

slapping sound

I didn't come here for an argument.

But why would I care about the powers that be if the powers that be are Trump and Putin and Merkel and Erdogan?

@Robusto Yes you did.

No, I didn't!

ding

I knew you'd get that one.

Five minutes up.

That was never five minutes!

Yeah it took me forever because both instances in the transcript have been nuked from YouTube!

So I had to find a reupload.

Shut your festering gob, you prick! Your type makes me puke!

This isn't an argument. It's just contradiction.

Look if I argue with you I have to take up a contrary position.

No you don't.

Look I'm not gonna argue with you unless you pay.

You could be arguing in your spare time.

Hold it. Hold it. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Inspector Thompson's Gazelle of the program Planning Police, Light Entertainment Division, Special Flying Squad.

What a stupid concept.

I'm 'arrestin' this entire room on three counts: one, acts of self-conscious behavior contrary to the 'Not in front of the children' Act. Two, always saying 'It's so and so of the Yard' every time the fuzz arrives. And three, and this is the cruncher, offences against the 'Getting out of sketches without using a proper punchline' Act.

They don't make sketch comedy like that anymore.

That's because they all were charged for willfully taking part in sketches, skits, spoofs or humorous vignettes of an unconventional nature with intent to cause grievous mental confusion to the Great British Public.

Alas, nobody expected that kind of Spanish Inquisition!

Indeed not.

Right. I think I'll go dig through some Wallace Cat and Gromit Stevens to see if I can find an easy piece to musically molest with my melangerie of melodicas.

I hope he has some easy anapaest somewhere. That should be a breeze.

Anapest? I thought you'd prefer Budapest.

I'm more into Shintopest, sorry.

Just any kind of pest will do for you?

Pest not to ask.

Well, I have to go help get the dinner going. Have fun with your Wallace and Gromit composing. Ta!

Thanks to you. Bon appestit.